School begins next Monday

Full day for kindergarten

Students return to school next Monday, with the first bell at 7:55 a.m. The schedule is the same as last year's with school in session until 3 p.m. for the elementary grades and 4 p.m. for middle and high school.

However there are some changes in positions held by key personnel. Former principal Bob Kelso has taken over Debi Roman's position as director of special education.

As head of school, Becky Crumbo will assume Kelso's duties while high school English teacher Katie Buttram will drop her classroom responsibilities to half time to take over Crumbo's role as MYP coordinator.

School Superintendent Sheila Breen said that in this coming year, she plans to step back from the day-to-day running of the school to focus more on the business aspect, including seeking grants and looking for resources to begin development of the new school land.

Betty Hultin and Elizabeth Davis are this year's Discovery teachers.

A new hire, Susan Emetti, takes over for school librarian Nancy Green, who retired at the end of last school year.

Another new teacher, Beth Van Hook, is expected to be teaching one second grade class, while Sarah Christian returns after a year of school to teach the other.

Based on enrollment figures from last week showing 28 children entering school, Breen said they are preparing for two kindergarten classes this year.

They will be taught by Cyndi Moreno and Karen Keil, who is substituting until Kelley Ingols finishes her maternity leave in November.

Crumbo said that she expects to have kindergartners and second graders tentatively assigned to teachers some time this week, but class rosters won't be finalized until the end of the first week of school.

"We have some kids that we don't know if they're coming back," Crumbo said. "They didn't come in to register last week."

Though last week was formal registration, it's not too late for parents to come in this week and register their students, she said.

Health Aide Peggy Russell-Haughton is taking registrations as well as answering phones while school secretary Cheryl Mobley inputs student information on a new database platform called PowerSchool.

"Everything we have internally is going in," Crumbo said. "Until it's up and running, Cheryl's window will be closed."

When the system is updated, parents will be able to access their children's records from their own computers. Parents who don't have a computer at home will be able to view the information from computers at the school.

This year, seniors will be required to have 40 hours of community service to graduate. Crumbo said that the school is working on a system to regularly report community service progress to parents of high school students.

The new sex education curriculum will be adopted and implemented this year. Breen said that after school starts, they will have a community meeting to talk about the curriculum and see if parents have concerns.

This year, the school will sponsor an Academic Decathlon team for grades 9-12, with Karen Weber teaching the prep class, assisted by Brad Houston. To participate, students must have at least a 70 percent average in all classes. Because of scheduling conflicts, grades nine and 10 will meet after school between 4 and 5 p.m. Other students can enroll for an eighth period class. They plan to compete online.

Lunch prices increased 25 cents to $2.50. Reduced lunch stays the same at 40 cents. Russell-Haughton said that families on free or reduced lunch must resubmit their paperwork for this school year.

Students who want to play sports must have a current sports physical and completed insurance paperwork. The North Country clinic offers sports physicals by appointment for $25. Call the clinic at 638-2551.

Comments

Comments are not posted immediately. Submissions must adhere to our Use of Service Terms of Use agreement. Rambling or nonsensical comments may not be posted. Comment submissions may not exceed a 200 word limit, and in order for us to reasonably manage this feature we may limit excessive comment entries.